News / Shortage of reefer boxes plays havoc with India's export schedules

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Indian cool chain shippers could miss some export order commitments to western buyers for the upcoming holiday season because of their inability to secure sufficient reefer containers.

While equipment shortage was expected to be widespread in the context of longer turnaround times, the pressure seems to be especially worrisome on refrigerated boxes.

“Reefer inventory is becoming a major challenge for all trades [out of India],” one sales executive at a leading carrier told The Loadstar. 

“But we are able to provide dry containers almost normally, now,” the source claimed.

The executive said there were efforts to reposition more reefer containers into India to mitigate the developing crisis for shippers and forwarders.

Other carrier sources cited inventory management challenges. One senior operations manager at a European carrier said: “We are operating in abnormal times.”

For the shipping community, the lack of reefers adds to vessel space shortages and soaring freight rates, already causing havoc on their shipments, after the Red Sea crisis disrupted container supply chains.

Indian seafood shippers have been hit hardest by the supply chain problems, according to sources.  The southern ports of Cochin and Visakhapatnam handle substantial seafood shipments, but shipments there have been minimal in recent weeks, sources said.

Other perishables, or time-sensitive cargo, shippers, including pharmaceutical verticals, are also facing cargo booking problems.

‘India exports large amounts of pharmaceuticals, agricultural commodities and seafood, and the availability of reefer equipment is critical to keep this cargo flowing,” Pushpank Kaushik, CEO of Hyderabad-based NVO and ship agent Jassper Shipping, told The Loadstar.

According to Mr Kaushik, India’s pharmaceutical exports largely move to the US, the UK and Russia, with the US, China and the EU the major markets for seafood.

Meanwhile, in yet another trade pain point, some major carriers have begun adding equipment imbalance surcharges (EISs) to ocean freight, citing inventory capacity pressures.

Hapag-Lloyd’s $300 per container fee on all sailings from India to Europe, from 1 July, is one such example.

Meanwhile, India’s overall export trade has had a good start in fiscal year 2024-25, with a 9% increase in value terms reported for May, according to available data.

“Our exports in all our top 10 markets (the US, UAE, Netherlands, UK, China, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, Germany and France) were positive and many of them recorded a healthy double-digit growth,” said Ashwani Kumar, president of the Federation of Indian Export Organisations.

“We expect exports to show better growth numbers with improved demand coming in from the European Union, the UK, West Asia and the US, which has given a boost to the order bookings by over 10%,” Mr Kumar added.

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